[Zenster99]

Greetings, fellow Team BHP'ians -

After a long time perusing the contents of this excellent forum as a "lurker" (i.e. non-registered member), I finally took the plunge and signed up as a member. Got approved today, so this is my first post to say hi to everyone!

A little about me - I've always enjoyed driving, and have taken the opportunity to do so in almost every country I've visited thus far (when possible!). I started out not really knowing a whole lot about what goes on "under the hood", but my experience of owning, maintaining and driving an old Maruti Zen (99 model, as you can tell from my username) got me started down that road as well. Of course, I'm by no means an expert on any of it - but experience has been and continues to a great teacher.

I look forward to perusing the forms in greater detail, and learning new things as well as helping out with my thoughts when I can.

Very best regards,
Rahul

[GTO]

Welcome aboard Zenster! You been very quick; I see a review thread of your Zen already.

The Zen is a great car to drive and immensely modification friendly .

Drive safe.

[yogeshnagpal]

Hey Zenster,

Welcome aboard man. Just went through your review on Zen. Apt and to the point!

Even I own a 2002 model Zen, MPFI though and have converted it to CNG and clocked around 57k kms.

It sure is a wonderful handler and puts some of the modern cars to shame in terms of pick-up and FE.

I love cornering the Zen.

The two -ve's as you mentioned-

1. Weak A.C
2. Lousy brakes. I just got the brake pads changed. Still feels lousy.

I also got the entire suspension overhauled last month.

Keep driving ! Cheers.

[Zenster99]

Originally Posted by GTO

Welcome aboard Zenster! You been very quick; I see a review thread of your Zen already.

The Zen is a great car to drive and immensely modification friendly .

Drive safe.

Thanks GTO. Yes, the Zen is certainly a great car to mod - speaking of which, I notice that I never did mention (in the thread) what mods I made to it!

Will get to it shortly.

Cheers,
Rahul

Originally Posted by yogeshnagpal

Hey Zenster,

Welcome aboard man. Just went through your review on Zen. Apt and to the point!

Thanks Yogesh.

Even I own a 2002 model Zen, MPFI though and have converted it to CNG and clocked around 57k kms.

It sure is a wonderful handler and puts some of the modern cars to shame in terms of pick-up and FE.

I love cornering the Zen.

The two -ve's as you mentioned-

1. Weak A.C
2. Lousy brakes. I just got the brake pads changed. Still feels lousy.

I also got the entire suspension overhauled last month.

Keep driving ! Cheers.

I suspect the suspension at the back is what gave out? The CNG fitment tends to require an overhaul of the suspension at some point, especially if you have passengers sitting in the rear seats quite often. . .

I've also got work done on the suspension, though haven't done an entire overhaul as of yet - haven't needed to. Ah, the maintenance one does on an older car, one remembers each one with a certain degree of "fondness"!

Good point you make regarding the brakes. I'm not sure I'd call the brakes lousy per se, but the pads do tend to give up pretty soon - not sure why. I sort of suspect the Zen has a few little "unique" niggles in it's braking system, and that only a good mechanic can address these, otherwise one's stuck changing brake pads every 7000 odd km or so as opposed to 11 or 12k which is what they should last for (is that the figure for you as well?); at least that is what happened in my case before my current mechanic to look at them, and the brake pads seem to be doing fine now (almost 7K so far, and no real problems). Except for minor squeals sometimes, but then the guy claims that happens sometimes in the Zen.

Yes, the A/C is weak - or to be more accurate, the blowers are quite weak. They could also have been positioned better IMO. But, I guess one takes the good with the bad, or vice versa!

Cheers, and enjoy your Zen - it's one of a kind!

Rahul